Maria Gîlicel – Violin RPS Emily Anderson Prize 2018

Biography

Romanian violinist Maria Gîlicel is recognized for her versatility and passion on stage. She recently graduated with First Class Honours from the in the class of Professor Ani Schnarc, and is now pursuing her Masters in Performance with Professor Maciej Rakowski. Prior to this, she studied at the Conservatorio Profesional de Música ‘Adolfo Salazar’ in Madrid under Professor Farid Fasla, where she won the prize for Outstanding Musician.

Maria has worked with Patricia Kopatchinskaja, , Alina Ibragimova, Leonid Kerbel, Oleksandr Semchuk, Itzhak Rashkovsky, Peter Schuhmayer, Vera Rodríguez Mehner, Mari Tampere- Bezrodny and Mariana Sîrbu. Recently, she had the pleasure of playing the second movement of Beethoven’s Concerto under the baton of Maxim Vengerov for his Orchestral Masterclass at the College. She took part in the 2018 BBC Symphony Orchestra Pathway Scheme and has also been selected for the 2018 Chamber Orchestra of Europe Academy.

Born in 1995, she started her violin at the age of 4 with her parents and was an enthusiastic performer from an early age. She made her debut at the National Auditorium (Madrid) performing Sarasate’s ‘Carmen Fantasy’ and has since appeared in many venues, including Wigmore Hall, Buckingham Palace, Royal Festival Hall, St. John’s Smith Square, Museo Sartorio (Trieste, Italy), Casa Tartini (Slovenia) and the Romanian Cultural Institute of London.

Maria is also an avid chamber musician of several ensembles. She is a founding member of the Thaleia , which receives regular coaching from the Head of Strings of the Royal College of Music, Mark Messenger. The Quartet has also worked with Christoph Richter, Pavel Fisher, Nicholas Jones, and the Carducci Quartet as part of Wigmore Hall Learning. They performed Britten’s Third String Quartet at the 90th birthday concert for Martin Lovett, who was a member of the Amadeus Quartet, to which the work was dedicated. Maria also plays in the Daphnis Piano Trio, which has been invited to take part at the ‘Music at Brel’ programme in France.

For her Masters, Maria receives support from the Henry Wood Accommodation Trust as a Soiree d’Or Scholar, the Stephen Bell Trust, and the Talent Unlimited Charity Fund. She was awarded a Study Award for her progresses at the RCM and the 2018 Royal Philharmonic Society Emily Anderson Prize for outstanding young violinists. She is part of the Tillett Trust Young Artists Platform, which will provide her with recital opportunities around the UK for the 2019 season

Maria plays on a Giovanni Francesco Pressenda violin (Turin, 1843) and a James Tubbs bow kindly loaned from the Royal College of Music. In her free time, she loves painting, reading and spending as much time as possible in nature.

(November 2018)